Robert Yockey 1945-2017

Vietnam Navy Veteran Robert Yockey died on March 19, 2017, the end of the St. Patricks day weekend. He had no family.

Robert graduated from Rawlins High School, class of 1963. He joined the Navy where he served aboard the USS DeHaven DD-727 as a Boilerman 2nd class.

Robert may not have had a blood- related family member at his funeral but he still had family there. Jnell Raymond is one of Robert's friends. She's know him for over 40 years, she says, "Everyone in town knew Bob. He was friendly. He was kind, he frequented most of the pubs in town so he had a lot of friends." adding, "And he loved it when all the girls showed up at the bar because then he got to visit with the girls"

Friends describe Bob as a man so nice he would take the shirt off his back for a stranger. The loss hits hard. Robert Hahn has know Bob since the 1980s and he said, "A big loss I think friends to everybody. Everybody that knew him was a friend and that kind of thing."

Bob was often seen driving around town in classic cars. Leroy Cruz has known Robert since he was eight years old adding, "He liked them fancy race cars. He had 64 GTO steel convertible first year they came out and he had a bunch of them muscle cars growing up."

Always driving with an American flag flying, Bob was a past quartermaster and life member for the VFW Post 2311 and a 30 years American Legion member. Patriotism was never far from him. "He was kind. I never heard him say a bad thing about anyone." Raymond said.

And its the smile and kind hardheartedness everyone in the town of Rawlins will miss.

One veteran passing through Rawlins donated one hundred dollars to help with the funeral expenses.